Business form container tray



April W958 F.- s. SCHADE ,83 ,3

BUSINESS FORM CONTAINER TRAY Filed July 22'; 1955 I INVENTOR I FRANK STANLEY scHADE, Zia I [44/ ATTORNEYS United States Patent BUSINESS FORM CONTAINER TRAY Frank Stanley Schade, Holyoke, Mass., assiguor to National Blank Book Company, Holyoke, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application July 22, 1955, Serial No. 523,723

1 Claim. (Cl. 129-1) This invention relates to trays for storing and handling various business forms as record sheets and the like and is particularly directed to a container tray which may also be used to support a group of records for convenient access to the individual sheets thereof for reference or record posting purposes.

An object of the present invention is to provide a storage container usable for posting purposes and the like and adapted to hold a cover and back panel structure in which various form sheets may be loosely enclosed so as to enable the sheets to be vertically stacked as a group and partially turned to rest against either cover member for ready accessto inspect, or remove and use, a form or forms while the rest of the stacked sheets remain in parted condition in the tray.

This general type of oflice record keeping equipment is known in the trade and takes various forms. Some devices are of an elaborate nature and include a work stand and storage cabinet which may be wheeled to a desk or other working surface. A removable housing or cover arrangement is also provided to expose the trays 011 which the record sheets or forms may be vertically stacked for reference purposes.

Other less elaborate devices are also used and these may be similar to a common file box. Record forms in the nature of sheets or cards may in this instance be stacked in the box and the sides of the box are formed with a pivoted wall arrangement adapted to spread apart for manipulating the forms between the divergently inclined sides.

The device of the present invention is designed to atford the same type of convenience for handling records as is supplied by the more elaborate devices. It is simplified in construction and the novel features will be found highly desirable where for various reasons the more elaborate equipment is not desired. It is accordingly a principal object of this invention to provide a container work tray for record keeping purposes which will afford the main advantages of existing posting tray and container equipment and be extremely simplified and inexpensive in nature.

The above and other specific objects and advantages of the invention will be understood from the following description of an embodiment thereof as shown by the accompanying drawings, in which,

Fig. l is an end elevation of the new tray with a cover member having a stack of record sheets inserted therein in working position; i

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the tray with the cover member and contents inserted in storage position; and

Pig. 3 is a perspective view on a reduced scale of the tray unit shown by Figs. 1 and 2.

Referring to the drawings the new container tray is generally designated by numeral 1. In Fig. '1 it shown with a record sheet holder 2 inserted in position for the user to refer to and use the individual records of a stack of sheets 3. in Fig. 2 it is shown with the holder 2 in sorted in storage position. The assembled unit is adapted to be deposited as on a file shelf and stacked with other similar units, or otherwise disposed of when not In use.

As shown by Figs. 1 and 2, the tray is preferably formed from a single blank of sheet metal and may be bent to provide symmetrical sides. It comprises a lower or bottom wall member (indicated generally by numeral 4-) joining opposite side wall portions 5 with oppositely spaced overlying top wall portions 6.

The lower wall member in the embodiment shown comprises a pair of spaced abutment portions 7 forming a longitudinally extending pocket as at 8. The pocket is centrally located between the side edges of the member 4, and the top surfaces of the abutments 7 lie in a common plane above the supporting surface of the recessed pocket bottom. The lower wall 4 may also be provided as shown with reversely bent runner sections as at 9 to serve as braces for the outer side edges. Rubber buttons as at 10 may be conveniently fixed to the underside of the lower wall sections 5 and 9.

The side walls 5 extend upwardly from the base 4 and the inwardly turned top wall portions 6 lie with their inner edges defining a longitudinally slotted opening above the pocket 8. The opening between the opposed inner edges of portions 6 is of a width greater than the width between the opposed edges of the spaced abutments 7. It will be noted as well that the free edge of each top portion lies outwardly of the edge of the correspondingly positioned abutment.

The relationship of the abutments and the slot of the upper wall permits, as shown by Fig. 1, the insertion of holder member 2 in position for working with the sheets of the pack 3. The back panel 11 of the holder will nest in the pocket 8 and the pair of covers 12., freely hinged to the back panel, will lie in divergently angled relation to rest against the edges of the flanged upper walls. With the covers thus propped on the edges in partially open position, the stack of sheets may be parted at any point to rest against the covers and expose any one of the individual sheets to view. The manipulation of the stack of sheets for recording purposes, etc., will be well understood and it will also be appreciated that the tray 1 will as well be adapted to hold loose leaf ring binders or the like having pages similar to the tabbed sheets 3.

As shown by Fig. 2 the holder or binder 2 when fully closed may be inserted in flat condition between the shutments 7 and top walls 6. Thus the tray serves as a container sleeve for the storage of the pack of records. Preferably the binder or holder to be used with. the tray is dimensioned to fit between the abutments and spaced top wall portions snugly and to be held therein by a moderate frictional grip.

Additionally it will be appreciated that the container 1 may be of an overall size either to partially enwrap a particular cover unit in the manner of a band wrapper, or, to fully receive the cover unit of record sheets with the bottom wall member coextensive in overall area with the cover members 12. In the latter case: the pocket 8 may serve as a hand hole by which the user can conveniently grip the opposite covers 12 and withdraw the binder 2 from the enclosed position shown by Fig. 2. In using the tray unit, when the ,record sheet pack between covers 12 may not be sufi'iciently full to provide a frictional grip holding the two units together in the inserted position of Fig. 2, a pair of stop straps 13 may he fixed across the end edges of the abutments and top walls at one end of the tray as shown by Fig. 3. The straps may be fixed as at 14 to the portions 6 and similarly to the abutments 7. Thus when the binder 2 is slid between walls it will be properly bottomed in storing position against the straps.

Patented Apr. 29, 1958 As will be noted from Figs. 1 and 2 the back panel 1 of the sheet holder unit is adapted to fit in the pocket 8 more or less loosely and atthe same time to fit between the bottom and top wall members more or less snugly. Accordingly, the spacing between the abutments is preferably dimensioned to be slightly greater than the spacing between the top surface of the abutments and the opposed top wall portions 6.

Having described the invention I claim:

A record sheet file for storage and sheet handling purposes comprising a tray unit formedot a single piece of sheet material and having a lower wall portion with spaced abutment portions of a height approximating the thickness of a human finger and arranged with the top surfaces thereof in a common plane and forming a longitudinally recessed pocket centrally of the side edges of said lower wall portion, side wall portions extending upwardly from said side edges and at the top of said side wall portions having a pair of spaced inwardly extending top wall portions overlying the lower wall portion with the opposed inner free edges of said top wall portions being disposed outwardly of and equidistant from the inner edges of the correspondingly disposed abutments of the lower wall portion and defining a longitudinal slotted opening above said pocket, said abutments being spaced :1 distance in excess of the spacing between the underside of said top wall portions and the top surface plane of the abutment portions, and a record sheet enclosure having a back panel and a pair of covers hingedly connected thereto, said back panel being of a width substantially equal to said spacing between the top wall portions and said surface plane of the abutment portions and of a thickness substantially less than the depth of said recessed pocket of the lower wall portion between said abutment portions, said back panel being insertable between said abutmentportions for a work position of said sheet enclosure with the covers upwardly of the hinged connections to said back panel and engaging the opposed inner edges at the top of said abutment portions and spaced therefrom at the opposed free edges of said top wall portions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

